Piotr Sadowski’s critical essay “The Masculine in Macbeth” (2001) argues that destruction of self is the psychological consequence of bending societally established gender roles. Sadowski supports his claim by citing examples of “gender and moral inversion” and defining “manly action” versus feminine “gender stereotypes” throughout Macbeth. Sadowski’s purpose is to analyze the shifts in the Macbeth’s gender roles (characterizing Macbeth as “psychologically dependent on his wife” and Lady as “unblinking manly”) in order to give literary and psychological causation for their subsequent demise; each Macbeth is doomed as they“pushed to an absolute extreme” in the attempt to revert back to their traditional roles. Sadowski’s criticism is intended for scholars open to psychological reasoning for the tragedy of Macbeth.
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